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Opinion Contributor

The mandate for the Left

Durbin would be an outright progressive hero if he didn’t take random swipes at 'the left,' the author writes. | AP Photo

By ADAM GREEN | 11/30/12 11:39 AM EST

In 2012, voters gave Democrats a clear mandate: increase tax rates on the rich, invest in jobs, cut corporate welfare, and don’t even think about cutting Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

This week’s big speech by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin on our fiscal situation was consistent with all of these things (making it somewhat odd that he took random slaps at “the left” on the day of his speech).

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Durbin flatly opposed benefit cuts – taking the rare step of going beyond Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to even defend food stamps. He declared: “We need a deficit-reduction plan that helps these families work their way out of poverty, not one that pushes them deeper into poverty.”

Durbin opposed the destructive “shared sacrifice” framing that basically ignores years of economic inequality, presses the reset button, and asks the rich and poor to both pony up. Instead, Durbin insisted the rich go first. “Before we demand greater sacrifices of those who can least afford it, we need to ask the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share.”

And instead of benefit cuts, every cost-saving entitlement reform that Durbin proposed boiled down to stopping corporations from ripping off taxpayers – such as saving $130 billion by allowing programs like Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.

The ethos of Durbin’s prepared remarks was consistent with the “balanced approach” to deficit reduction laid out by Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a debate before voters:

WARREN: “It’s going to take a balanced approach. I believe we need to make cuts, we need to make cuts to agriculture subsidies. We need to make cuts in our defense budget, targeted cuts. We need to end the war in Afghanistan, that’s $2 billion a week. We need to cut fraud and abuse out of the system. But we also need to ask others to pay their fair share. I believe that billionaires should pay taxes at least at the same rate that their secretaries do.”

Using spending cuts to take on the big guy instead of the little guy is appropriate, given that our deficit is caused primarily by the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, two wars, and Wall Street’s irresponsibility.